The List Of Tesla Villains Continues To Grow

The funniest thing about Tesla is that Tesla isn’t funny anymore. Some powerful people are becoming increasingly annoyed and increasingly vocal as Don Quixote Musk’s impossible dream of an electric revolution becomes less Quixotic every year. The other funny thing about Tesla is that anyone who tries to whack the company ends up looking like a possum’s pecker. Ask Chris Christie.

That’s because everyone considers Tesla the underdog in a fight with much bigger powers that be. So if Tesla is the protagonist, here’s the latest batch of antagonists in this serial drama. Every single one of them has stepped in it, PR-wise, as they struggle to stifle the inconvenient change that Tesla represents.

The Koch Brothers: Status and Quo
The very rich and well-connected duo arethrowing their weight behind, well, inertia. Their pro-petroleum campaign is the moral equivalent of a pro-smoking campaign. Do villains come any yuckier than this?

Rival auto company execs
How do they diss? Let us count the ways (more details about these incidentshere):
* Porsche CEO Matthias Müller: “I cannot say anything about Tesla,” he said. “I don’t know anything about Tesla.” He’s since been promoted to CBO at VW. That’s chief bullshit officer.
* Brian Smith, Lexus VP: “They’ll probably come back,” he said, referring to former Lexus customers who’ve defected to Tesla. “I think the question remains to be seen how many people will buy a second Tesla.”
* Mercedes Benz USA boss Steve Cannon: “Folks are buying a Tesla now because they’re kind of cool, but if you’re a Tesla buyer, you have to have multiple cars. With Mercedes, you have a whole network. You’ve got no worries.”
* BMW: During speculation about a Tesla/BMW collaboration with batteries and carbon fiber, unnamed sources within BMW told a German magazine that Tesla is faking an association with BMW for marketing purposes.
* Audi: Issued a press release on its website (quickly taken down) titled, “Not so fast to put Tesla on that particular pedestal.” It slapped the media for hyping Model S sales numbers. Tesla’s sudden success represents merely a temporary blip from early adopters, said the press release.
* Aston Martin: “We don’t do Ludicrous because Ludicrous speed is stupid,” So says Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer.* General Motors: It took publicity shots of the Bolt parked at Tesla’s HQ. Then, at the car’s official intro, (skip to 7:52), CEO Mary Barra took a tacit swing at Tesla: “We believe strongly in the dealer model, and the tremendous value our customers derive from neighborhood dealerships.” A totally disingenuous statement, as dissected here.

Last week, GM backed an Indiana bill that would force Tesla to use dealerships or get outta town. Tesla sicced the dogs on Indiana pols until they voted today, with bloodied ankles, to table the bill until . . . until someone decides to get his ankles chewed again. Indiana Sen. James Buck, limping last week, said: “I’ve gotten calls that I was tempted to play back to you and listen to the incivility from Tesla owners, even had that here this morning. And I don’t intend to put up with it.” Bullied by Tesla, the underdog? The press isn’t buying that depiction. All headlines accurately describe a “kill Tesla bill” sponsored by GM and tossed around by pols beholden to automakers and dealer groups. Once again, Tesla ends up with free publicity and probably a few more sales. Ka-ching! And GM looks like a possum’s pecker.* Bob Lutz: When he was with GM, Tesla inspired him to build the Volt. He even waxed avuncular with Elon Musk in this photo. But then a disturbing change came over him. He succumbed to the dark side and now preaches against Tesla at every open mike he can find. He’s personally banking on a new project: throwing Corvette engines in Fisker bodies. Yes, hybrids are the future. Viva amphibia!

One more funny thing about Tesla is that none of these buffoons has thus far achieved anything except making themselves look like possum’s peckers. Real damage to Tesla would require a wholly different kind of villain. Unfortunately, we know they exist:

Lunatic fringe
“We all know you’re out there.” Remember that 1981 song? John Lennon’s assassination gave it a boost of real-world relevance at the time. Unfortunately, a stroll through history means stepping over the dead bodies of high-achievers assassinated by otherwise anonymous self-loathing losers of the world. Back to the song: “You gotta blame someone, for your own confusion.” TeslaMondo has already called for tighter security around Elon Musk after this awkward moment at a shareholder meeting (skip to 38:55). In the subconscious mind of every shareholder, there’s a gunshot and a disaster for Tesla. Musk isn’t oblivious to this. In the Ashlee Vance book, he acknowledges that the list of people who wouldn’t mind if he were gone is growing. Here’s hoping he dies peacefully on Mars, not violently onstage.

*Editor’s Note: This and countless other Tesla-related posts appear on TeslaMondo. Check it out here.

Every true Tesla fan must mortgage his house and spend all money on TSLA, preferably with maximum leverage he can get. He would get 5 star Senior Cult Member Badge and Sword then and immediately achieve superiority against ignorant mere mortals!

Every true Tesla stock shorter must set up Google news alerts so he can instantly know when a new article favorable to Tesla appears on the Internet, so he can find it and post an entirely negative bashing post, in an effort to make everyone associate Tesla with negative feelings.

So how is your *cough* progress *cough* on that doing, zzzzzzzzzz? Have you earned your Senior Cult Member Badge yet?

No, I left The Badge for you. It is still on the shelf, you have a chance to get it. I would certainly short TSLA if it would be run by Tesla fanboys, they are not capable of critical thinking and so hopeless. But it is run by people who have some clue, even if not perfect, so it is too much risk to short it.

Yeah, Picking on Lutz just because he’s putting Corvette engines in the old Karma isn’t the worst crime he could have committed.

Lutz has stated his 2 favorite cars are the VOLT and the Corvette.

I’d be proud to have Lutz’s accomplishments, you’ll never hear me dissing him without cause.

I wonder why VIA is taking so long to ramp up, so I’d chauk this up to his ‘slightest’ accomplishment to date.

But agreed, the author doesn’t sound in the same league with the people he is insulting. If you don’t have a track record behind you, it might be best to stick to the facts, or at least have some facts straight before attacking someone. I never heard Lutz talk bad about him.

The more the nay sayers try to throw SH*T on Tesla, the more people check them out, read extra news about them, discover their website amd stores, and move to support them, buy their car and/or the stock.

With so many drivers of the car, and wannabe drivers, and company staff keeping an eye and ear out for relevant news, not much gets by them! Easy to find something and push it onto more channels!

It’s not a “problem”, it’s a feature of this website. Given the high volume of Tesla related articles here, it seems pretty clear that at least some, if not all, of the staff are fans of Tesla.

You’re swimming against the stream here, zzzzzzzzzz. Why don’t you go create your own website, where you can bash Tesla and promote other EVs to your heart’s content? That is, in the very unlikely case that you honestly are not here for the primary purpose of promoting either a TSLA stock shorting position or a politically motivated anti-Tesla position.

What ever happened to objective journalism? There are two sides to every story, we need an article at least expressing the other sides point of without bias commentary. Are our Tesla glasses so darkly tinted on this news site that we can’t or won’t see the other side of the story?

The notification that this was a blog repost, and not a news repost from a news organization was right exactly where insideevs ALWAYS provides crediting for sources. Why should this one story be handled differently than how sources have been handled for years?

See this part in the story:

*Editor’s Note: This and countless other Tesla-related posts appear on TeslaMondo. Check it out here.

RE: Two sides to every story. Umm…
That’s why we hear about 97% of climate scientists, and then the journalists must go seek out the lunatic fringe for a response. The last few years has me much more pragmatic about the ‘two sides’ concepts.

Two sides to the story? The article didn’t lie: It clearly stated what Tesla’s opposition are doing. There is no ‘side’ to the story. Tesla’s competitors are greedy and seek to belittle and/or see Tesla fail. Why? Because that’s what rival businesses do.

Except, the key difference is Tesla are unique in that they want EVs to succeed in general, so therefore, Tesla wouldn’t dream of actively sabotaging potential EV uptake, even their competitor’s cars.

I will believe this “want to succeed” when Musk will open his proprietary walled garden and go with open standard charging network like the rest of the world, and stop making silly excuses about some automakers not paying him for the “privilege” (as if he is paying for private Model S drivers using Chademo chargers), too little power (as if people who actually do things without whining didn’t made and installed 120 kW Chademo/CCS chargers for everybody’s use). So far, talk is cheap and helps to propel TSLA only.

holy effing troll bait, how many times do you have to have the same things explained to you over and over?

Tesla has opened up both their patents and their charging network to ANY other car manufacturers who want to join in building out the network. None have accepted Tesla’s offer. Stop being intentionally ignorant and repeating the same BS.

Furthermore, Tesla had no choice to use any of the other standards when they were getting ready to go into production, because not a single other standard was ready that could deliver the same level of charging power. Again, stop with the intellectual dishonesty.

I appreciate that some of person mentioned in this article may have selfish motives in their rhetoric but trying to portray them as mindless zealots and idiots is counter productive. By taking this posture the author appears as a mindless zealot and an idiot which strongly dilutes his message.

Texas FFE, you should try to be more aware of unintended irony in your own posts. For example, a hardcore “Truther” conspiracy theorist like you, who thinks the Bush Jr. administration blew up the World Trade Center, accusing others of portraying someone as a “mindless zealot”.

Of course they did! They needed a pretext to invade the Middle-East and steal the Oil. Now tell me when in History a steel building fell apart because of flames. Answer : NEVER! At free fall speed? Even less than NEVER! But still on that September 11, it happened three times!
It was controled demolition. And guess who was in charge of security? Jed Bush!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9fLeLe4Nlk
The two planes were Army window-less unmanned drones. In Building 7 was the control center. So they had to blew it up also… along with all the paperworks of the ENRON affair… How convenient!

I am sorry for your loss, but they were just cannon fodder for the rats who pulled this coup.
Casualties, for big corporations, human life has no value, it never did… And this is why they don’t care about the environment, they only care for their unbounded greed. And you work for them…shame…

Let me get this straight. The claim is that one building was blown up by gov’t conspiracy. But the other building just coincidentally fell down due to completely unrelated reasons — nothing to do with the airplanes stuck in them burning jet fuel?

I don’t have to “believe” what I said, these are facts. Easy to verify if someone care to.
BTW where was the James Bondesque Bin Laden control center buried in a cave? And where were the weapons of mass destruction?

What a smart answer! I invite those who are doubting the official version to go and take a look at the second part of the “Zeitgeist 1” video. A very precise summary of too many facts contradicting the Petro-Bush government lies. Like in the EV recent(and present) history, we’re being lied to big time!

And for those who never doubt the smooth propaganda we are immersed in every day by the media, you HAVE TO see this… but I warn you, unless you make a leap of faith toward objectivity, you won’t believe it. There is too much of a dark side of well accepted facts of life exposed at once to questioning for our brain to process that it becomes quite difficult not to rationalise that having been lied to all this time is impossible.
The winners always re-write History.

You’re right, it was Marvin, the younger brother of Goerge W.
It doesn’t change a thing.
I read that there were heavy maintenance works on many many levels of the WTC 9 months prior to 9/11 and the elevator cases all the way up. Sniffer dogs were removed a few days before the “attack”.

The one ‘humorous’ (if you can call it that in view of the innocent deaths) moment is when the BBC interviewed one of their British reporters just in front of the Salomon Bros. building ( 48 storey WTC #7 ), she stating that the building had just “collapsed”, at 4:10 pm local time, when it actually collapsed an hour later, and due to this extended interview with the reporter, as it got close to 5 pm the video link to her failed.

Since the building was due to collapse just after 5pm (very nice of the building to cooperated perfectly time-wise), someone at the BBC behind the scenes must have forgotten about daylight-savings-time inthe states, and it would be doubly embarrassing to have the building fall ON CAMERA when they were already talking how it had just fallen ahour earlier.

Note To Sven: I think you’re an intelligent guy, and I appreciate your loss of your friends. So then it is even more important for those having skin in the game to find out what REALLY happened. Even at this late date. Calling Rexxsee a loon was outof line.

I would use rose colored glasses to describe the eye wear of Tesla fans, and dark glasses for the opponents who only see the dark side of things. Probably neither story is entirely correct in all aspects.

Well lets see. Tesla and Elon Musk have basically pushed forward the reality that compelling EVs and a logical and robust DCFC network CAN replace ICE mobiles and their fossil fuels.

So this idea is basically a dagger aimed at the heart of Big Oil and their cartels. Being that they are just about the most powerful industry (so powerful that in many cases the oil companies were at one time nationalized by many countries to restrain their power) on earth I can see why there is incredibly well funded pushback from them and their allies. Of course their allies include many politicians and in fact the Republican party are the “beneficiaries” of most of that political bribery/donations.

Meanwhile, the laggard OEMs along with their entrenched dealer networks in the US are fearful of losing their profits selling and especially maintaining ICE vehicles.

Also you have the financial industry leaches like Mark Spiegel, Anton Wahlman, Edward Niedermeyer and their fan club who keep inappropriately carpet bombing many of the Tesla threads here with their financial FUD.

You are in the fan club I mentioned above tftf. By the way, I can’t help but notice you still keep failing to disclose your short position on Tesla here in your posts on Insideevs.

BYD is doing well in China because it is a Chinese company and Renault/Nissan are helping move the bar forward but they have yet to sell a compelling long-range EV unlike Tesla.

Tesla is proving that EVs can replace ICE in virtually all owner situations (they are outselling the Mercedes S class in the luxury segment) and as you know they are moving down market so that more affordable car is coming as we shall see in one month.

Actually, you would be wrong.
Tesla is really only selling in America, Europe, and China. China is doing all they can to block tesla, unless they agree to bring their manufacturing and secrets to china (which they will still block them once there).
OTOH, in America and Europe, Tesla outsells all other EVs. You include Hybrids and sales all over the world for BYD and Renault-nissan to beat Tesla.

They have “ridiculous laws” again any import, not just auto. Most often you need no more than 50% share in local company with local people to sell something in China market. Somebody may say that they are just protecting their own interests.

I’m sure that will “really” come as a great surprise to the Tesla employees working at showrooms and service centers in Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong… which is a separate (different legal system with right-hand drive cars) market from China.

The standard right-wing smear against EVs since the 1970s was that batteries could only power tiny socialist city cars for women and gays. By going for the top of the pyramid with a huge, fast luxury sedan at a time when Detroit has given up on the $60,000+ tier, Tesla disrupted many stereotypes. Yet the right-wingers now insinuate that expensive EVs are elitist, which somehow means they’re actually Communist because as certain creatures have tried to warn us for 70 years, the rich and the poor are conspiring together against us good people to create a one-world dictatorship.

I’m a former Lexus owner who dumped my IS 350 for a Model S 2 years ago. In 6-8 years I will likely be joining you as a 2nd Tesla owner when I upgrade to the 150D or whatever they have then.

Toyota/Lexus really screwed up IMO by putting their money on the Fool Cell train. It’s disappointing, as I was a long-time lover of Toyota/Lexus vehicles and thought that innovative company would be a leader in EV tech, not a downplayer of it.

I doubt you will need to feel sorry for Toyota when they will release second generation Mirai in 2020 starting at 30k/year and it will cost less then similar limited range LiOn battery car. The same with Honda and the rest of the crowd.

Some new type of better battery may change the balance, but I doubt it will happen within 10 years.

Tesla is like the train getting ready to leave the station and take off. The things holding back Tesla are limited production limited by the battery supply. Another thing is that I think the solar power packs could easily grow bigger then the car business it has do to lots of places in the world having hideous high power rates. But all of these new markets are in turn limited by battery cell production.

“[quote] The things holding back Tesla are limited production limited by the battery supply [unquote].

“Which psalm is that again ?”

You’re promoting the myth that Tesla Motors hasn’t been production constrained by battery supply?

How do you explain away the elephant in the room — the fact that Tesla is building a $5 billion battery Gigafactory? Maybe they just don’t like the color of the cells Panasonic makes?

Or Tesla repeatedly approaching Samsung for an additional battery supply, because they couldn’t get Panasonic to ramp up production fast enough; this despite the fact that they would have, or did, have to pay Samsung a higher cost per cell. How do you convince yourself that didn’t happen… not just once, but at least twice?

Perhaps you think the Gigafactory is some kind of Potemkin Village which is all for show, and will never produce anything?

TeslaMondo needs to do another article, on the myths that Tesla bashers are promoting. That just cries out for an even sharper tone of mockery than the present article.

Saw a Model X in RL last weekend. It was not love at first sight. Thinking a used Model S will be a better choice for me personally when the Leaf lease expires in April. I think they kinda blew it on MX after hitting a home run with MS. However, the TM folks are really bright…pretty sure the will apply the KISS principal to M3.

Regarding the villains (status quo)…that’s just normal business competition. At a certain point (like when the gigafactory hits its stride) the inevitable reality will settle in and 15-30 cycle of turnover from ICE to EV will begin in earnest.

He, he! Yeah, there are big and stinky animals with sketchy demeanor, and then there are possums. 😉

I also saw a couple of Model X SUVs this weekend and after looking at them next to Model S cars the X grew on me rather rapidly. Much better-looking in person, no fisheye camera lens distortion, no odd angles. A lot of things have changed, many of the criticisms of the Model S interior and some of the exterior have been addressed. It is a different cat, grown up in size, but also in wisdom.

I’m afraid transition to zero emission vehicles is going to be more of an evolution than revolution. I read an article recently that stated ZEVs would only achieve 30% market penetration by 2040. As much as we early adopters would like to believe otherwise, I think this projection is realistic.

One thing I found encouraging though was that ICE sales stagnated and growth was actually absorb by ZEVs.

No, they don’t, as a few Indiana legislators found out. People are kind of miffed when they feel as if they are getting a raw deal, due to their public officials following the dictates of companies like GM.

I think you are correct that civility is the best choice, but in this society civility is often viewed as weakness, being uncivil is showing strength.
Example: Donald Trump.

The first question I ask myself when I read derogatory statements concerning Tesla, is do the detractors have a dog in the hunt? The usual answer is yes, which then leads me to question the credibility of those statements.
I guess I am funny like that.

To be fair, there have been many cases where Elon’s lack of self-censorship regarding other auto makers and their cars have been an embarrassment for Tesla Motors’ public image. Whether or not sven’s link was to something out of context does not change that unfortunate reality.

As an example of one of the more egregious chapters in Elon’s lack of self-control, consider the mud-flinging contest between Elon and that Broder reporter (I could use several far less polite terms, but “reporter” will do here) at the New York Times. Both Tesla and the Times got splattered with a lot of mud on that one.

Careful fact-checking proved that a lot of what both Broder and Elon said, in that war of words, simply was not true.

No company, not even Tesla, could make a compelling long-range BEV at the time Elon dissed those affordable EV’s, given the cost of Li-ion batteries at that time. It was the best that could be done at that low price point, and it got many people into EVs as a daily driver and advanced the EV cause. If Tesla had tried to build and sell a BEV at that price point and at the cost of Li-ion batteries at that time, that low-priced Tesla would have been a compromised piece-of-sh!t BEV. When Elon made those dissing statements, he should have instead put up or shut up.

Yeah, I know right?
These nutbrains actually believe a large heavy sedan can accelerate to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds, go 250 miles on the equivalent energy of 2.5 gallons of gas, has the most technically advanced user interface in automobiledom and can(get this) actually refuel from sunlight!
Those crazy Tesla fanboys!

I believe GM’s moves on this may be a Trojan Horse.
‘Help’ the dealers make the laws so onerous as to force the matter to the courts. Hope the courts free up the direct sales model, then start movement to their own direct sales.

If GM was capable that kind of long-term planning, instead of short-term thinking, then they wouldn’t keep getting caught trying to sell SUVs and land barges in the middle of an oil shortage or a recession.

Understand Pushmi, this isn’t about ‘what’ they sell, it’s about ‘how’ they sell. If GM could sell 1 mpg gas guzzlers, they probably would.

What I’m saying is, GM wants to shed(at least partially) that ‘boat anchor’ they’re dragging around known as the ‘dealership only’ model. But, they’re not going to do it themselves. Their hope is that Tesla will do the heavy lifting through the courts, get direct sales implemented and they follow on.

GM then tells the dealers how they tried to stop the ‘evil Tesla’, but now they too must start some direct selling to stay competitive. Or………they could just be anti competition possum peckers.

Yes, Tesla did that. It was a brilliant ploy to create public good-will.

But was there some strategy behind it? At the time Tesla made that offer, it was well known that no other EV then in production, or planned, could be charged at the fast rate of the Superchargers.

It could be argued that what Tesla was actually trying to do was entice or pressure other EV makers into agreeing to make Tesla’s charging format the future standard for charging. So perhaps it wasn’t as altruistic as it appeared.

Just curious if there have been any attempts by anyone to set up EV only car dealerships? In the 2-Wheeled EV world there is a company called Hollywood Electrics and the only type of motorcycle they sell are electrics. They are Zero’s best dealership and the real go-to place for aftermarket options. But I definitely don’t see the drama with ICE bike dealerships selling electric motorcycles like you see in the 4-Wheeled EV world. The dealership I bought my Zero SR from sells a variety of other brands but actively promotes Zero like they do their other brands.

And I don’t mean to be insulting here, but accurate when I say: If it wasn’t a rather feeble attempt, it was at least a seriously under-funded attempt to sell a rather un-compelling, unstylish, overpriced Chinese made BEV in the USA.

The structure of traditional gas car company franchise agreements make it literally impossible to have a dealership only sell their EV/PHEV products.

All of the ICE manufacturers have minimum purchase requirements that dealerships must meet in order to keep their franchise license.

Here is an example from Suzuki:

“PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS
Every dealership is required and expected to stock and maintain Suzuki’s full line of motorcycles, ATVs, and scooters. Must meet minimum purchase requirements for each model variation of motorcycles, ATVs, and scooters per order period. Must purchase motorcycle, ATV, and scooter accessory packages each year.”

This is one of the reasons why Tesla has often stated that traditional ICE car dealerships are not an option for Tesla. They are literally forced into selling gas cars to keep their ICE franchises, and that is a conflict of interest in promoting EV’s.

There’s no light and a lof of heat in their “articles”.
Using quotes from people who have long since changed their tune on Tesla (like Porsche CEO Matthias Müller) is disingenuous at best,
and choosing to reference Lennon’s assassination is simply outré.
The “lunatic fringe” is TeslaMondo much more than the (unfortunately still mainstream) majority people they’re criticizing.

I live higher than 600 feet above sea level. Sure, it’s nice to hear the waves out the bedroom window – but you know what? Most people are in it for the very short term. They want their beach-side condo to exist “this summer”. They have no clue as to if it will exist in 15-30 years. Insurance companies shouldn’t even serve those located near the shore.

Our biggest issue (which is solvable) is diaspora. People moving away from water’s edge. If we were a smart people, we would basically stop all construction of permanent buildings below 20 feet above sea level.

The construction projects to move away from waters edge will be enormously good for the economy. We “print money” anyway and so waterproofing NYC/Manhattan will be a nice economic gain for construction companies. Same for Jersey City. heck – they can dam and re-route the Hudson river and that would be an interesting project. It’s not like if we flood, we die. It is going to be “we flood, we move” or “we flood, we relocate a little bit”.

I have ONE car, and its a Tesla Model S, I live in Norway so everywhere I go its long distances. Whats the big problem?

* Mercedes Benz USA boss Steve Cannon: “Folks are buying a Tesla now because they’re kind of cool, but if you’re a Tesla buyer, you have to have multiple cars. With Mercedes, you have a whole network. You’ve got no worries.”

Sindre – the first rule of a system is to “protect the system”. Mercedes boss would have big problems in stating that Tesla owners could be one-car owners. By agreeing with you – he puts his whole company “on notice” to say that electric cars can fully replace gasoline or diesel cars.

I doubt Steve Cannon can chime in “nicely” regarding long-range EVs until they have them on the road in a competitive stance.